In its Nov. 8 edition, Chimes ran a picture of President Le Roy and a group of students at the Taco Bell formal. Although tightly packed in a relatively small area, the students were unmasked and the President was unmasked. More importantly, hypocrisy was unmasked. 

My fellow students: who are we to believe? Should we believe our Vice President for Student Life, Sarah Visser, who wrote in a recent COVID Response Team email: “We currently have a mask requirement for good reasons … they are required in indoor public spaces at Calvin.” 

Or should we believe our president, who attended the event with “more than 100 students,” while, according to Visser’s email, “Kent County continues to hover at the 17% mark for test positivity and remains in the High category on the CDC’s four-part ranking system for community transmission.”

What is the truth? Who are we to believe?

The truth is a majority of professors and students have already received the vaccine.

According to statistics from the CDC, people from 18-29 years old account for around 0.6 percent of the total 779,402 COVID deaths in the United States.

In other words, since the beginning of the pandemic, only 4,618 people within the 18-29 year old age group have died. To put that in perspective, there were 6,031 deaths from car accidents for the 15-24 year old age group and 12,204 deaths from car accidents for the 25-44 year age group in 2019, according to a study by the NSC.

The truth is we take risks every day and we are all ready to get back to real, unmasked life. I’m glad our president recognizes this and I hope to see more freedom on campus.

Editor’s Note: University President Michael Le Roy told Chimes he attended the event with a mask on, removing it only to eat his meal.